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Overview of Recent Trends in Solar Technology



These days, it is hard to find anyone who does not know about solar panels. Practically solar power is mostly used in remote areas away from national grid, but it is now becoming very popular in rural and sub-urban areas as well. Solar technology is progressing by leaps and bounds. It’s getting better and better each day.In following few paragraphs we have reviewed some latest advancement in this field:

1 – MIT Researchers Print a Solar Cell on Paper

Solar Cell on Paper

The idea of clean and green fuel is great but it has certain disadvantages. First it’s so much expensive, second their power conversion rate is quite low. Final disadvantage is that you need storage space to save all the power, which is converted by a clean and green technology. The MIT researchers had developed solar cells printed on paper. This technology will take years to be in market for commercial use, but it is an interesting development.

2 – Solar Greenhouse to Produce Food and Electricity

Solar Greenhouse

It seems amazing that a greenhouse produce solar power and food. This unique has been done in Italy. Renewable energy companies Solar ReFeel, CeRSAA and solar panel manufacturer Solyndra are the companies are responsible for this project. This solar power greenhouse is being built at CeRSAA’s Albenga, Italy. Basic purpose of this project is to attain production of both food and electricity. The research team is also experimenting to validate the crop growth benefits of Solyndra’s technology by taking help of independent testing by a leading agricultural institution.

3 – Affordable Solar Power with Purple Pokeberries

Solar Power with Purple Pokeberries

Researchers at Wake Forest University’s Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials are experimenting to attain source of clean and green power through pokeberries because pokeberries can be helpful in making of affordable solar power. Scientists of Nanotech Center had extracted the red dye from pokeberries to paint their efficient and low-cost fiber-based solar cells. The dye had given the desirable results. The dye acted as an absorber and helped the cells minute fibers to capture more sunlight for converting it into power.

4 – Ontario Solar Power could match US Nuclear Power

Ontario Solar Power

Queen’s University Applied Sustainability Research Group located in Kingston, Canada had came out with two studies, which claim solar power in southeastern Ontario can be created in great quantity. It’s said that southeastern Ontario has the potential to produce almost as much power as all the nuclear reactors in the United States.

5 – Carbon – based Solar Cells

Carbon-based Solar Cells

Solar panels are usually made of silicon. Silicon is not cheap that’s why it raise the costs which makes it expensive for the people who want to use solar energy. Scientists made solar panels with another substance ruthenium which is cheaper than silicon. But ruthenium is a rare metal and its same rare as platinum. So it can’t be used on a mass level production. While carbon is cheap and widely available also, the graphene a form of carbon is having ability to absorb wide range of light frequencies.

6 – World’s Largest Solar Boat

World’s Largest Solar Boat

PlanetSolar is world’s largest solar boat and it’s prepared for a world tour. Features of this boat are:

  • 60 ton weight
  • 470 square meter are covered by 38,000 solar cells
  • 103.Kw electricity it generates

18 million euro was spent to make this environment friendly boat. All 38,000 photovoltaic cells were provided by the SunPower Corporation. The solar panels installed on this boat are having pretty decent conversion rate of 22%.

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Wind Power Or Solar Power For The Home?

The debate continues over what is the best form of alternative energy source and what is the most efficient method of creating energy. There is not a doubt that the depletion of the natural resource of oil is coming. Everyone agrees on this issue. So what is next?

Just look around to see what is most abundant on the Earth? Air and Water are resources that can be tapped to provide our growing population with energy. Along with this, the most powerful “generator,” the sun. The question is, how do we harness the power in an efficient, economical, and environmentally friendly way?

To date, wind power has added over 2% of the power to the United States power grid. For other countries, this number is higher. The initial investment of adding a wind power generator is minimal when compared to a coal, oil, or nuclear generating plant. The footprint of a wind turbine is also much smaller. Sounds like this is the answer, however….

The issues that come with wind power generators are many. Some of the opponents have the following arguments:

Wind turbines are noisy – This is somewhat true. The older generation windmills were definitely noisy. The constant spinning of a huge fan will definitely create some noise pollution. Couple that with multiple turbines on a “wind farm” and the noise can be deafening. The good news is, those are the older generation wind turbines. The new version of wind generators are far less noisy and much more efficient, needing less to create the same amount of electricity.

Wind turbines are sight pollution – There is something harmonious about a bunch of fans spinning in synchronicity along the side of a mountain or mountaintop. But having a large windmill in the middle of a neighborhood could pose some problems. But what is the trade-off? I would trade the addition of a windmill for a lower electric bill and better air to breathe, would you?

There is never consistent wind – There are very few times when there is no moving air in some areas. The Southern California desert areas consistently have airflow. Sides of mountains consistently have breezes and the central United States has constant air circulation. The issue is where, not if.

Never-the-less, there will always be debate about any new idea or possibility of change. There are pros and cons to everything. But in the case of wind power being a large part of the electricity producing framework, we are already there. We just need to move farther and faster.

The problem is, there is no real practical use for wind power at home. Home Solar Power is still the very best way to get Free Electricity.

Clean-Green-Earth.com is a website devoted to the awareness and preservation of our planet. On this site, I invite people of all walks of life, all countries, all ages to debate about what we as a people can do better to keep our skies blue and our waters clean.

Check out practical recommendations in the sphere of suspended ceiling – read this web site. The time has come when proper info is really within one click, use this possibility.

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Electric Cars Face Huge Hurdles, But are Still the Next Big Thing

The electric car has come a long way in recent years, and it’s going to go further. Believe it or not, electric car prototypes have been around since the 1830s!  Companies are producing bigger and better batteries, power providers are brainstorming ways to implement charging stations to charge them (electric cars draw as much electricity [...]

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